Live
"Fuck it, if no one buys this one, we are making another one, and we are going to keep fucking making them, until you relent and buy the bastards." Elegant words from the Bluetones lead guitarist, Adam Delvin, on the new album Luxembourg
The opening track of the album and top of the evening's set-list, 'Here it comes again' describes where we stand with the Bluetones. Britpop might be dead, but pop continues to thrive in the Bluetones camp. Although British and once popular, the boys from Hounslow maintain that they never were Britpop. "We are a pop group, that is what we think we are. We always work within the boundaries of twisted little psychedelic pop songs, that is what we do." After a three-year absence, the Bluetones have returned on a fifty date nationwide tour that retraces the band's small beginnings playing in small venues. It is from here that the veterans of Britpop have aimed to re-launch themselves. To the stage of the Zodiac the Bluetones re-introduced their familiar brand of cheerful melancholia, this time injected with touch of electro-synthesised pop.
The night opened with The Archie Bronson Outfit. Three boys from Putney, friends of the Bluetones, who let rip the wailing vocals and dark rock, swampy sounds, a coercion of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Jesus and the Mary Chain. They made for an awesome support band, if somewhat out of place in this little time porthole.
After a tentative start, and seemingly sceptical audience, even the most unwilling mind would have remembered what the Bluetones were about. Thrashing out heartfelt renditions of 'Solomon Bites the Worm' and 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' , the band teased their ardent fans by interspersing the Bluetone classics with material from their new album.
The boys filled the Zodiac's tiny stage and the audience indulged in almost two hours of feet tapping, hip shaking nostalgia as the Bluetones transported us back to their hey-day. Technically sound, the performance was faultless, but in a song really about sadomasochism and satsuma's Mark Morriss's voice sang the saddening truth about the Bluetones; "you're no fun anymore/you used to be once/but that was before"
Speaking to the OxStu, Adam Delvin chooses to describe Luxembourg as a "short, sharp, shock". Unfortunately the most shocking thing about their fourth studio album is the lack of new direction. This album offers a trip down memory lane, but 1996 was seven years ago, and Luxembourg simply lacks the sophistication that 'Slight Return' and 'Science and Nature' offered. The albums most notable offerings 'Never going nowhere', 'Big problem' and 'Here it comes again' really do shine; and places them akin with the likes of the Wannadies, but as a whole Luxembourg lacks.
Yet the hardcore Bluetone fan base was left screaming for the encore. If you appreciated the Bluetones the first time around, then you might enjoy this rawer simpler rendition from the mediocre radio band. However, the odour of Britpop lingers around Luxembourg and the label that once gave the Bluetones a beneficial push is now the dead albatross that hangs around their necks.
Una Galani
22nd May 2003